Digimon- The Old Kingdom
by Charlie2038
Summary: Alphamon is the famed savior of the digital world. In times of crisis the Royal Knights assemble to maintain peace and prosperity, but instead of leading them to a new golden age, he begins a deadly crusade against his own order. The heroes of old must rise again and new humans will enter the digital world, will they be enough to stop Alphamon?
1. Chapter 1

_Welcome to my story! If you are solely interested in it's content please feel free to skip over this section, but if you choose to stay I want to let you know how this story will work. I have always thought digimon was a genius in its lore. The sheer content available is amazing, and it shows in the 7,000+ stories here. Because of this I have created a version of the digital world for this story that fits it's needs, but don't worry it's hardly changing the dynamic. Levels and such are intact, and the physics mostly resemble shows like Frontier and Adventure._

_As I said, I try to keep things full of lore. In each chapter I will leave a line or two detailing things such as history of my digital world, character data, ect. If requested, I can always make them longer._

_This story is meant to use Original Characters exclusively, but given that Digimon is a multi-verse that is subject to chage, granted there is enough of a reason. I did want to add that I have decided to assign a canon digivice to the characters in the story. I will probably reveal that in a lore post. _

_The story begins from the perspective of the humans that will enter the digital world...I'd say in about chapter 9 or 10 you will see the likes of Yggdrasil and Alphamon. _

_Enjoy!_

* * *

**Chapter one**

Sirens were not a common sound in my town, especially at five in the morning. Curiosity was the only reason I got out of bed. I left my house through the back door, hoping nobody had heard me. I quietly walked towards the front gate, but stopped when I heard people getting out of a car. I crouched and peeked outside thorough a small opening on the fence, there I could see the two police cars parked in front of a house at the end of the block. I knew that my best friend, Paul, lived around there, but I was too far away to tell if it was his house, I sure hoped it wasn't him. I jumped over the fence and felt it tremble in pain, producing a loud creaking sound. I cursed under my breath, noticing I was not being very sneaky and continued to move.

The police had turned off their lights as I walked down the street. I took it as an indication that they had gone into the house. When I got closer I realized it was, as I feared, the two cars were outside Paul's small white home. I noticed that the cars were different. One was a standard police cruiser, while the other one was all black, tinted and seemed to be a more expensive model. I could see movement from the porch window.

The point was to climb the stairs quietly but, the wooden steps produced a small thump with every step I took. I feared I would be caught before I could get a glimpse of what was going on. I reached the porch and turned to the window on the left. I only saw an empty dining room, lighted by dim candlelight. _Romantic_. I walked over to the right window, and found what I had come for.

I saw Paul's parents crying as they spoke to an officer and a man wearing a suit. The officer looked to be in his late twenties and was writing something down on a small notepad. The suited man was much older, perhaps fifty. He seemed very calm, too calm. I was surprised to see Paul's "Macho" father weeping as he talked. I kept observing as the officer began to speak. Their conversation was inaudible, yet you could see in their eyes that the subject was serious. Paul's dad wiped his tears off his eyes, said something to everyone and stood up. I realized he was about to turn in my direction. I hastily dropped myself onto the wooden porch, hoping I wasn't caught.

After two minutes I decided I should take another look. I saw Paul's dad with a tissue, listening to the man in the suit. They continued their exchange for a while. My main concern was the fact that Paul was not present. I would expect him to be there, since our level of curiosity is very similar. Another thing was that man in the suit. He didn't seem to be a police officer, and yet he was right in the middle of what I understood would be a confidential issue.

Finally the two guests stood up and said their goodbyes to the sobbing parents. While they headed for the door I slid off the small porch through a crack in the fencing; now more curious than ever before.

I realized I had no time to run so I crawled under the porch, confident my dark clothing would let me remain undetected. The door opened, and my entire body froze.

I saw two pairs of shoes near the parked vehicles. One pair seemed to be boots, while the other resembled loafers.

"We'll do everything we can, but, eh, we can't begin 'till we turn in our report," said the man on the boots, I knew this because he was pacing as he spoke.

"Nonsense, said a deep-voiced man, presumably the one in the loafers, " We don't need permission, we'll get to the bottom of this…I'll call you." he said confidently.

The men boarded their cars and left without turning the sirens back on. I concluded that the best thing I could do was wait until I heard the front door close, then I would get out. I decided to stare at my watch to pass the time, but even after ten minutes the door was still open.

"Charlie, how long do you plan to stay there?" I heard. I knew that voice; it was Paul's dad. I held my breath, hoping he had just imagined it. There was no way he had seen me.

_After the mysterious Fall of the last rulers of the digital world, a group known as the Royal Knights was founded. They ruled the digital world with Yggdrasil as their advisor, but the rise of Alphamon saw the end of what had been considered a utopian period in the Digital World's history. No one truly knows what drove the legendary knight to betray his own comrades, and he would argue that they were the ones that betrayed him. _


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter two**

"Charlie, how long do you plan to stay there?" I heard. I knew that voice; it was Paul's dad. I held my breath, hoping he had just imagined it. There was no way he had seen me.

"I'm not leaving until you come out".

The jig was up, and I slid out of the porch in shame, afraid to look into his eyes. Paul had once told me that his dad was a psychologist. He told me psychologists were able to tell when you lie or what you might be feeling just by looking at you. I stood up and saw him staring at me from the house's doorstep.

"Do want to tell me why you were hiding under my house? Particularly at 5:30 AM?" he said calmly. I noticed he seemed to have gained his composure in the last 10 minutes; no longer I saw the red eyes or tear marks on his face. Paul's dad was a tall and muscularly built man, and it was not difficult for him to be intimidating.

I did think he'd like the idea of me spying on him, so I decided to test Paul's story.

"Oh, nothing Mr. Smith it's just that my soccer ball fell here yesterday and since I woke up earlier I decided to pick it up before getting ready for school." I lied. _Stupid._

"You're lying Charlie," he said with a chuckle.

_How?!_, I thought. I decided I might as well tell him the truth; I was beat, once again.

"Fine. I saw the cop cars and I was worried, since they came to you guys' house."

"You mean curious", to this I sighed in mild aggravation.

"How much did you see?" he said.

"I saw you talking to the cop, and a guy in a suit…" I was still wondering who he was.

"So you know what is going on?"

"Hmm…not really, I was wondering where Paul was, is he still sleeping?" I asked

He looked down and I waited for him, this was about Paul after all. He faced me once again with the redder eyes.

"Paul is gone", he said.

_**Fractal Code is a common sight in the digital world. The absorption of data is essential to the path of digi-evolution. **_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter three**

"What happened to him?!" I screamed.

He didn't answer instead he looked around the street to check if someone heard my shouting.

"We'd best get inside", he said; motioning me into his home. I followed, already fearing the worst. There were a million things that could spark such a strange visit, and as I walked in I began thinking about each one, the sound of the door closing shut my thoughts off momentarily.

We took a seat in the living room; I noticed that the window I used to spy on them was easily noticeable from Mr. Smith's position. It now made sense, everyone but him would have never noticed.

"Charlie", he began, "We don't know where he is, please, if you know anything…don't hesitate"

I knew very little of Paul's recent relationship with his parents. Only what he told me a week before. He said that he was sick and tired of the way his parents talked to him. How they were always undermining his opinion. An easy way to summarize it would be to say he was fed up. I came to the most logical conclusion.

"I think he ran away", I said almost immediately regretting it.

"That might be true, but why do you say that?" he asked.

"Well…" I was afraid to tell him what Paul had mentioned, as he would find them offensive.

"Charlie, right now the most important thing to me is my son's safety, I don't care what it is, just tell me", his stern but pleading tone reminded me of how important this conversation was for him.

I began to tell him what Paul had told me in the past few weeks, without the cursing. Paul often complained that his parents were always 'bitching' about his grades, and the fact that they didn't give him any freedom. Paul also talked to me about other things; those had nothing to do with his parents, so I omitted them. It pained me to betray Paul's trust, however I knew it might help with finding him.

Paul's dad had silently endured listening to his son's opinions. I admired his ability to listen to the whole story without one comeback. I would never see such attitudes in my own house. When I had finished he sighed.

"I see; do you have any idea where he could have gone?" he asked, almost sounding hopeful.

"I know a few places he would go, but I'm completely sure he didn't go there. If he wanted to run away and didn't tell anyone he wouldn't go to a place where he can be found, that's just not like him."

"Neither is running away", he countered

"True."

He sighed again. Suddenly I remembered something that would definitely help us.

"I know! His laptop, is it still here?" I asked

"Yeah, why?"

"Maybe he used the internet to find this place he went to!" I said excitedly

"That sounds great but I'm sure you don't know the password, Paul always kept his password secret," he said

"If someone can figure it out, I think I can", I said with pride. Paul _was_ my best friend after all.

"Go ahead then, he said", with that I ran to Paul's room. I expected him to follow, but I then heard a woman's voice entering the living room. Mrs. Smith would obviously want answers as well.

Although what I said was true, I had a better idea than what I had told Mr. Smith. Paul once told me he had folders filled with his thoughts, personal journals and other random stuff. At first I didn't think of it much, but under the circumstances that was our best bet to figure out where he could have gone.

I got to his room and, as usual, you could barely see the floor. The soft brown carpet was buried under piles of clothes, a towel and papers. Many of these contained strange symbols reminiscent of what I thought was computer code. On the far left corner sat a glass desk. On top of it was a laptop, and next to it a wireless mouse. I shook the mouse and the screen came to life. There was a black screen with a white text box, it read:

Username: Paul Smith

Password:

There was a hint button on the bottom, so I clicked it.

Hint: My favorite Author

_Of course_, aside from his countless writing hours he was an active reader. But when the subject of books came he always highlighted a certain set of books. I never read them, but he carried them everyday for months.

Password: Dan Brown.

The computer accepted it and the familiar "Windows" startup came on. The computer screen went black, and then completely blue; you couldn't even see the mouse. At the bottom of his plain blue screen was a flashing line. I suspected it was a typing space. I typed in "hi". The text soon disappeared.

"Greetings". I was surprised to see this was some sort of chat, with any luck I would find out who was talking to Paul and if he/she know where he went.

"Who are you?" I typed.

"Someone who wants to help"

"What are you talking about?", I typed with feigned ignorance.

"I know where your friend is, take the access drive next to you"

"The what and do _what_?"

Suddenly the screen turned off. I checked to the side of the computer and saw the charger hadn't been connected. _Of all days he could have charged his computer_. A USB lay there on the side. I was sure I had not seen it before. Of course, that had to be the drive that person was talking about.

I checked my watch. 5:45, I realized it was getting late; I had to get ready for school. Even though the situation was urgent, I would have gained nothing by getting in trouble at home.

I took the USB, and determined I would address the problem as soon as possible. When I headed for the door I could see Mr. Smith looking out the now infamous front window. I decided I wouldn't tell him about my little chat, afraid that I might be giving him false hopes. For all I knew this was a random friend of Paul's playing a prank on me.

"Leaving?"

"Yes, I haven't figured out the password but I'm sure it's on the book he lent me…_The Lost Symbol"_

"Ok, thank you, I might just give the computer to the police for inspection"

When he said that I wondered if they'd find this person and what he wanted quicker than I would. I thanked him for sharing the news with me and sneaked back into my house to enter my room. My watch read 5:50, ten minutes before the usual alarm. Exhausted I lay on my bed and closed my eyes. _Ten minutes_, I told myself.

_**Paul has lived in his hometown since birth, but was often seen frequenting the woods nearby. Charlie later discovered that he was frequenting an abandoned cabin, often saying it was a great place to meditate. **_


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter four**

"Charlie!" I heard

"Charlie, open the gate!" said the unknown voice.

"What gate?" I asked

"The gate! You need to open it"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Charlie the gate"

"Charlie! Charlie wake up!"

I opened my eyes and saw my cousin Justin standing at the foot of my bed, laughing.

"Again you didn't turn on your alarm and now, you're gonna be late to school…tsk tsk tsk", she said, clicking his tongue. I threw my pillow at him and jumped off the bed.

"Get out I gotta change!", I exclaimed in a rush.

I was not too fond of my cousin Justin. At ten years old he had learned every single trick there was to annoying me, which had been hard until he came along. His rather tall stature also helped remind me of my shorter than average height. Unfortunately, I had asked him to turn on my alarm the last night. These sorts of things were common though, and led to our current love-hate relationship.

I went to my closet and threw on the first thing I could find. Fashion was never my thing; a pair of jeans, a random T-shirt and a hoodie was enough for me. Despite that I did have one thing I always wore, and was sort of like my fashion statement. I always wore a pair of goggles around my neck. Paul and my other friends always told me that they were weird and uncool. I never cared because I loved them.

I ran downstairs and headed out the front door. I knew that the bus would be here soon so I chose to run. Just as I was about to get to the bus stop I passed by Paul's house.

I remembered that I still had the USB in my pocket and that I had to find out to whom he was talking to. Making a mental note of that I kept running. Computer class was first period, conveniently.

I reached the bus stop with five minutes to spare. I took some time to catch my breath. Twelve minutes had passed and I was still sitting there, bored. _I should have just walked_, I thought. Normally waiting for the bus was fun, since the only two people at this stop were Paul and I. Today, however, it was just I. This was enough to reignite the worry I had felt earlier, but exhaustion kept coming back, making me too tired to worry.

The bus finally arrived; I got on and noticed the bus driver was waiting for somebody else. As I had mentioned earlier no one lived in this area so I was a bit surprised. Just then a kid stepped into the bus. The bus driver politely greeted him; the girl simply dismissed him and went to sit alone at the back. _What an ass, _I thought_._ I put out my headphones and closed my eyes. I figured I had about twenty minutes to rest until I reached school.

_The goggles had been a gift from his grand-father, James. The man had been an active traveler due to his line of work and in one occasion had gotten the goggles as a souvenir for Charlie. He passed away only months later, and in a way, they are all he has left of him. He wears them in his memory. _


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

I always hated the 7 o' clock bell, but today I was looking forward to it. I entered computer class and sat at my usual seat. The teacher, Mr. Horton was sitting in his desk located in the center of the room. We did not know why, but he rarely left his seat, preferring to roll his chair whenever we needed assistance. The only time he got up was when if he were to leave the room.

As I waited for the teacher to begin a girl walked into the classroom. He happened to be the same kid who was in the bus this morning. The teacher spoke to her for a few minutes and then directed her to the front of the class.

"Class this is Alexandra. She is new to the school", the teacher said from his seat, as she remained silent.

"Why don't you sit over there?" he said pointing at the empty computer next to me. She quietly walked there and took a seat next to me. I thought it would be nice to approach him; after all it is never easy to be the new kid.

"Hi I'm Charlie", I said

She looked at me dead in the eye but chose not to answer me. Now I was getting a bit annoyed_. What is her problem?_

"The least you can do is answer me!", I said a bit louder than I should have.

"Hello! Are you happy, kid?" he said, her sarcasm made clear by her tone.

_Well at least she answered,_ I thought. But whom was this girl kidding? _Kid_? She looks a bit older than me but we are both in the same school. I decided to ignore her and mind my own business. I guessed it didn't really matter.

The teacher instructed us to continue working on our assignment from last class. I went into my bag pack and searched for my USB. Then I remembered, Paul's USB! I pulled it out and plugged it into the computer; excited to see it's contents. As it loaded the class was interrupted by the sound of a fire alarm.

_**Digimon are able to manifest themselves in the human world through a manipulation of electromagnetic waves. By altering the compostion of the nearby atoms they synthesize biological compounds to mimic their digital structure. The process creates a mist...an electron cloud...that surrounds the affected area as seen in Tamers. **_


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter six**

The teacher groaned and told all the students to get out of the classroom, it seemed we were having a fire drill. Alex and I were wearing headphones so we did not hear the teacher.

"Charlie and Alexandra you guys need to get out; that is the point of a drill. I finally heard him and got up but stopped when I heard a very high-pitched noise. I turned around and noticed that it was coming from my computer. A bright white light had filled the screen. The light then shrunk down to form two baseball-sized circles on the screen. Suddenly two beams shot out of the computer, one heading towards me.

I ducked for cover and heard a bang on the wall behind me. I saw a large smoking hole on the wall. The sight sent a slight shiver down my back, after all that could have been me. I walked towards it slowly, not knowing what to expect. There sat a small silver device, no bigger than a cell phone. It was oddly shaped with two buttons on the left side and one big button on the right. In it's center was a small LCD screen. I picked it up and noticed it was very light. A beeping caused me to turn back and once again I was facing the computer. This time it had a completely white screen, with a flashing line. _Just like Paul's._

"Greetings"

I _knew_ this was the same person from last night. It had to be.

"What is going on?", asked Alex. At the time I had not noticed she also had one of the strange devices in her hand. Just after she said that another text appeared on the screen.

"Do you still want to find him?"

"Yes!", I typed

"Then point the Digivice at the screen."

_What the heck is a Digivice? _

I assumed it was that thing that had just flown out, but the request seemed strange. I figured I had nothing to loose and pointed the device at the screen. The high pitch noise retuned as the screen turned black.

"What did you do?" Alexandra said angrily.

Bright green text appeared on the screen, it read:

**Digital Gate open**

The letters began to glow as I felt my body being pulled closer to the screen. Light blinded my vision. It seemed to engulf my entire body, and as this happened I slipped out of consciousness.

_**The digivices resemble the Adventure digivices for visuals sake. They do not, however, share the same qualities. Digivices are normally created by high beings in the digimon world, such as the Kings or Yggdrasil. **_


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter seven**

I awoke face down on what felt like sand. My body felt numb, but within a few heartbeats I was able to stand up. Realizing it _was_ sand; I tried to shake most of it off my pants. Given there was very little on me, it was clear I had not been here for long. I decided to take one good look around, but noticed that would not take very long. On all angles a seemingly never-ending sea of dunes surrounded me. The sun was already setting and a sense of dread was beginning to sink in.

It took me a little bit of time to grasp the severity of the situation. Somehow I had appeared in the middle of a dessert and there was no visible way out. I then remembered that Alexandra had stuck by during the computer chat.

"Alex!", I yelled, wondering if she was in the same area, "Alex!"

"Stop yelling, idiot", I heard from behind, "and it's Alex_andra"_

I sighed in relief, at least I had someone, but frankly I was not too happy with the person whom I'd spend my time with.

I looked around once more, almost as if it was a confirmation of my surroundings and then said:

"Any idea where we are?"

"No…but I think we are in Africa", she said, lacking the sarcastic edge I had grown used to.

"Why Africa?"

"Isn't it obvious? This place looks exactly like the Sahara desert, and it looks like we are right in the middle", she said, this time regaining her hostile tone.

I gave a nod of agreement, but was not truly convinced, yet for the time being it was best to leave it at that. I proceeded to check my pockets, hoping that I had been carrying something useful. My cell phone was in my pocket and quickly took it out, only to find it out of battery. When placing it back into my pocket I felt the distinct sensation of cold metal. I lifted my shirt slightly to find the metal device clipped onto my belt. I unhooked it and inspected it, but realized it did not seem to have any power either. Beside me, Alex was also checking her inventory, and arriving to the same conclusions.

"Now what? Fuck, it's getting darker.", she said in an aggravated tone. Almost on queue I noticed a figure was standing in a distance to the south.

"Look over there, I stated, pointing in the direction of the figure, "See it?"

"Yeah I see it"

"I think we should head that way"

With that we began marching toward the figure, the darkness making it seem like a sort of blotch. Suddenly we stopped as we saw a large blue orb form in front of the figure. It seemed to grow; we realized it was not expanding, but darting towards us. We ducked for cover behind a nearby dune and saw an energy ball fly above us and crash down on the ground we once stood on.

With both interest and dread I peeked my head out of the dune, and was horrified by what I saw.

_**Blood is not a common phenomena in the digital world, but injuries are. As an example, if a limb were cut off, it would merely disintegrate, with the remains displaying red particles disintegrating at a much slower rate. **_


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

Above us, only a few meters away stood a creature that looked mostly like a dinosaur. Standing about 5 meters tall, his skin was a light blue, with red stripes running though his legs and tail, his head was also adorned with what looked like an Indian headdress. The dinosaur tilted his head, noticing my fearful gaze. At this point Alex had also risen from her hiding spot, and it seemed she shared my amazement.

"Have you never seen a digimon before, human?", he said with a sinister chuckle. To this we both gasped, but there was no time to be afraid.

"A digimon?", I replied, trying to shake off the shock.

"Of course, this _is_ the digital word, but you do not belong here. I am Allomon, the guard of this area, and _you_ are intruders", he said in a grim tone. Allomon then started marching towards us.

"We need to get out of here", Alex said in a low tone. I nodded in agreement and pointed to the area between Allomon's legs.

"Maybe we can act scared until he gets close enough, and then run through there, it should slow him down", I offered

"It's suicide", she replied quickly

"Got any better ideas?", I said, realizing I was engaging in a classic cliché. It made me feel like I was part of one of those fantasy adventure movies I was fond of, but that was not important at the moment. Alexandra did not speak, but simply waited for Allomon to advance, she had agreed.

Still crouching, we waited for Allomon to get in range for us to begin our plan. I wrapped my hands around the sand in anticipation; thankfully, my wait was not long. Within a few seconds he stood right in front of us. Taking the sand I had gathered underneath my palms, I threw it at Allomon, aiming for his eyes. The enormous digimon screamed in pain and both Alex and I ran in between his legs.

We did not stop running; the main focus was to put as much possible distance between the digimon and us, but he recovered and began his angry pursuit. With every step he took he let out a threat they all went along the lines of 'If you don't surrender now I will make you pay'.

I kept running as fast as I could, the goggles around my neck kept bouncing rhythmically. Alex was close behind me, but she seemed to be struggling. Allomon kept a steady pace, something that could barely be called a jog. We could barely see ahead, perhaps a few meters at most, but it was better than what we knew stood only a few paces behind us.

Looking ahead, I noticed that there was what seemed to be a gap from the usual darkened sand dunes. Alex figured out quicker than I did though, she called my name and I turned around almost forgetting I was still ahead of her.

"There's a gorge in front of us! Turn around", she said. The command had give me an idea.

"Let's split up", I offered, "he can't get us both!", she grunted in acknowledgement and headed to the right, while I took the left. Allomon seemed amused by the decision and stopped in his tracks.

"I'll disposed of one of you first then"

With that he turned to the left and opened his mouth, the blue beam's formation was clear in the growing darkness. Behind him, I noticed there was another light; this one was yellow and seemed to be traveling the same way Allomon's had during his first attack. The beam reached Allomon's stomach before his own attack had finished materializing; it's flame extinguished. The dinosaur digimon fell to his knees issuing cries of pain and animalistic grunts.

From the distance there was a yellow light of the same tone as the attack before, but it did not seem to be traveling, instead it illuminated the path for what apparently was a man. He seemed about a meter and a half tall and wore a witch's hat with s skull in the middle and a tattered cloak lined with strange markings through the inside. The light was coming from a yellow staff in the shape of a sun and the man walked as if he was strolling around the park.

"Who…who are you?!", Allomon snarled.

The man did not speak. He instead lifted the staff once again and fired another shot, this one was clearly more potent, for Allomon yelled until the man had finished walking to him. He placed the staff under the pained digimon's chin and said:

"_Who_ sent you here?", his voice was cold, but I thought I felt a hint of anger when asking for this digimon's superior. Allomon did not answer, and after a while he cleared his throat; instead of an answer he began to give out a series of pained laughs.

"I know who you are…I will tell you nothing…infidel", Allomon said, eyeing the staff. The only reaction from the cloaked man was a scoff. The staff lit up once more and the beam fired through the digimon's neck. To my surprise there was no gore, instead a set of floating particles. They seemed like three-dimensional pixels. _Was this what he meant about the world being digital?_

The body's coloration seemed to fade and a blue ring appeared around his body. The ring had a distinct pattern that reminded me of a bar code. The man lifted his left hand and the ring broke off, becoming a line that faded into his now glowing left hand. He sighed and then walked over to me.

"Are you alright?", he asked.

"Yeah I'm fine…who are you?"

"They call me Wizardmon"

_**Many world information organizations, such as the NSA, are aware of the possibility of the digital world. Their investigations have all led them to believe it doesn't exist or, at least, that is what they report to the public. **_


	9. Chapter 9

_Sorry about the late post, it was my mom's birthday. Next Chapter will be up tomorrow! _

* * *

**Chapter Nine**

Wizardmon and I waited for Alex, apparently she had been witnessing the battle from a distance and rejoined us soon after. Wizardmon waited for her to say something, but when she didn't he introduced himself. Afterwards he said: "It's not safe here, we must move quickly."

We both followed Wizardmon as he led us along the gorge eventually finding an incline on which we could descend. Nobody spoke, I assumed Alex was replaying the battle in her head, I knew I was.

I had no doubts that my initial hunch was right' we had been trapped on some sort of digital dimension. It was the obvious conclusion, but that also led to an endless line of questions; the first one being, how did we even get here? I was no physicist but I knew that there was no known way to convert people to data. I scratched my head as I thought; the whole ordeal was giving me a headache.

Eventually I realized that there was little point in questioning it, I was in the middle of it already, now I must watch out and try to avoid beings like Allomon. I looked over to Alex, wondering if she was having a similar dilemma, and to my surprise she seemed completely calm, as if this situation was common.

After what I thought to be about an hour, we stopped. We had reached the bottom of the gorge some time ago, but we kept walking beside a small river to our right. Wizardmon had led us inside a cave formation on one side of the gorge, the cave was full of sand and aside from that sat a small rock no bigger than my own school backpack. Alex scoffed, apparently not happy to see the sand once again. The digimon turned around to face us for the first time since he had begun our 'journey'.

"One of you, your digivice", he said. The thought brought back memories of that morning in the computer room. It felt like it was ages ago. I decided to give it to him and unclipped it from my belt. Wizardmon gave a thankful nod and turned around once more; he pointed at the rock and after a few heartbeats faced us.

"What is it?", Alex asked

"It seems…", Wizardmon answered as he handed me back my digivice, "…that it only works on humans."

I nodded, and figured it was best to give it a shot. Taking a deep breath, I pointed the digivice at the rock and almost immediately it began to glow. The sand in front of the rock began to fall, revealing a staircase hidden under a thin layer of sand. I blinked a few times, knowing that such a thing was hardly possible, but I recalled my earlier assessment. Nothing in this world had to make sense; it's not _my_ world. Wizardmon walked in first with a "follow me" wave of his hand.

The staircase was not long, I had ended up being the last to enter the opening and as we descended I noticed that the sand that had fallen had risen back, replacing the layer on the top. The stairs seemed to be made of a sort of red brick, and led us to an expansive but almost empty room, which was also made of this material. Upon further inspection I noticed the left wall had a frame that seemed to continue as a tunnel, and to the right was a large carving of completely unfamiliar figures. They seemed to be armored figures, and judging by the detail in the carving they must have been important figures. There was also a large stone table, where Wizardmon had taken a seat, and invited us to join him.

"I know you must have many questions, but would you like a drink?"

"Sure…", I answered. Wizardmon lifted himself from the table and walked over to a cabinet near the carvings, retrieving a floppy disk. _What is he supposed to do with that?_ The digimon set it upon the table and waved his hand over it, immediately causing it to shift form into two metal tankards. He seemed to smirk as both Alex and I stared in amazement. He shoved them towards us and I drank hurriedly. Alexandra seemed to study the contents, upon realizing it was water she drank as well, but at a much slower pace.

"This place…", he began, "…was an old travel route used during the time of the Kings, but the Royal Knights are now the only who know if its existence. We will be safe here, for now"

"Who are you?", Alex said first.

"They call me Wizardmon, as I had told you before"

"Are you a digimon?"

"Yes, with the exception of the humans that have entered this world, everyone here is a digimon; no matter how 'human' they may appear"

"From what are we safe here?", I asked.

"In this case, they call themselves the Fis-", his sentence was interrupted by a loud crash coming from the entrance to the tunnel. We all looked back simultaneously but, once again, it was Wizardmon who was aware of what was going on.

"It seems even _they_ know of this place. There is no time."

**_In what seems to be ages ago, great Kings ruled the Digital World. They were powerful Mega-leveled Digimon and were almost worshipped by their subjects, often believed to be invincible. _**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

Wizardmon led us into the tunnel I had spotted earlier on the left side of the room. The stretch was small, only about a quarter the size of the previous room; it contained nothing on the left or front walls but a small console was built into the right wall. Hastily Wizardmon rushed over to it and placed a card on a slot. The console beeped and a set of options in an unfamiliar alphabet appeared. The digimon quickly selected something and looked at the front wall expectantly.

A warm mist seemed to ooze out of the wall, enveloping it. Little by little it swallowed the stone wall, until none of it was visible through the thick cloud. An electric charge made a piercing sound and the mist cleared in an instant. Where the wall once stood were three tunnels, but these seemed like cobble rather than the red bricks in the rest of the hideout. I realized Wizardmon's strategy was going to be like how we had dealt with Allomon in the desert.

"We will split up here, rendezvous with me at the plaza. That is all you need to know"

With that he gave a one hundred and eighty degree spin, causing his cape to flutter, and proceeded to run through the tunnel in the middle. I looked at Alex and saw that she was already on her way over to the left tunnel. I gave her a nod and took the last tunnel, deciding to run just like Wizardmon had.

As I ran I always stole a look back to the entrance, just to see if whoever might be pursuing us had chosen to follow my tunnel, but eventually it was no longer visible. It seemed as if I was running endlessly, for all that was behind and in front of me was the tunnel, which was dimly lit by torches. I wondered; if I touched them, would it burn? I realized the question was stupid; while the world might be digital, the sensations are not.

Eventually I saw a light shining at the end; I quickened my pace and arrived at a large circular room. This room was composed of a sort of limestone that seemed to have been carved out of one enormous slab. It was not very detailed, it was simply a circle, but it in the center of its roof was a skylight. What I thought was strange was that under the roof was an enormous oak tree.

I stepped forward into the room, and looked behind to see the same mist from earlier envelop the exit for the tunnel. In a matter of seconds, all that was left was the same limestone from before. I looked over to my left and saw that the other two tunnels remained open. _I guess I'm the first one. _

I walked over to the tree, but as I got closer I realized how massive this tree really was. It could have easily been five times the size of a regular oak tree. I placed my hand upon a part of the trunk and noticed there was an inscription; one that was the same language as the one Wizardmon had used back at the hideout. Moving my hand over I traced the inscription with my fingertips.

Every piece of technology in this world seemed to use this language. I was curious to know if the digivice had the same inscriptions. I unclipped it and held it up next to the letters. While the sequence was differed, they were indeed the same kind. Without warning, both the digivice and the letters began to glow. The light from the letters expanded, creating a circle of light on the tree's trunk. It suddenly disappeared, revealing a new hallway, but this one was metallic.

I would later find out what the inscription said: _Yggdrasil_.

**_Currently nobody knows how many humans have entered the digital world, but scholars are sure that many humans were present during the Old Kingdom Era._**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

It seemed this world was fond of stretching hallways, fortunately this one was not nearly as long as the last. It only took about a minute to reach a large crystal door. The digivice beeped twice and a knob appeared on it. _Ok then, this just gets more normal by the minute. Well, nothing ventured…_

Twisting the knob carefully, I peeked inside, where I saw a small room framed in the same crystal as the door. There was nothing inside of it except for a pedestal and an orb suspended in mid-air. Figuring it was safe; I advanced forth, drawing closer to the floating sphere. A cold sweat ran through my forehead as I stretched my hand out to touch it. Before making contact it produced a dim glow and produced a sound that could be best described as the concomitant beating of a hundred drums.

I staggered back and stared at it. Seemingly in response it glowed, but as it did a voice could be heard from all angles of the room.

"I…am Yggdrasil", the voice said.

"Yggdrasil? Show yourself!", I answered back.

"This _is_ I", he said almost as if offended, "I am Yggdrasil, Sage of the digital world"

"Keeper…", I stood silent for a moment, expecting him to continue, but then I realized I did have something to say.

"Do you know why I am here? Why Alex is here?"

"I have brought you and the other humans here, because only humans can use the catalyst. The Fists of Alpha have ravaged the digital world in a war that has lasted far too long"

"But why us?"

"Because you were the only who answered my call"

Three. Alex and I had come together, but there was a third…and that had to be Paul. In all of the recent events I had thought little of the reason I had gotten into this mess. It all made sense now. Him disappearing without a trace, the strange messages, the USB. But something was off; I didn't recall Alex accepting.

"So you sent that message"

"Yes, and now that you are here, you will begin your role in this world", Yggdrasil glowed once more, this time creating a sharp hiss of a sound. From the left two digimon appeared. One of them seemed like a humanoid feline of sorts, oh his hip he carried a thin blade that reminded me of a rapier. The other was much talker and walked with a confident slow pace, he was all white with the exception of his arms, which were blue and orange with heads at the ends of each one.

"Omnimon and Leopardmon, welcome, but where are Dynasmon and Gallantmon?", the sage demanded. Omnimon fell to one knee and Leopardmon followed suit.

"Both went out on patrol last night, my Lord, but they have not returned yet", Omnimon said. Yggdrasil did not respond but simply let out a dim glow and, as if on queue, both of the digimon stood up.

"What is your name, human?", asked Yggdrasil.

"Charlie…well it's really Charles but I never really go by-", I stopped, realizing that I was talking too much.

"Charlie then, I present to you Omnimon and Leopardmon, members of the Royal Knights", to this I gasped audibly. They were the ones that Wizardmon had spoken of, would they be able to keep us safe?

"If you will follow us", Omnimon said as he motioned me to follow him. I did as he said and walked behind his massive figure, his flowing cape giving him a sense of elegance that would otherwise be lost by the giant heads he had for hands.

They walked to a black door that I was sure I had not seen before. It was as large as Omnimon and had lines all around that gave it the look of a giant microchip. The royal knight lifted his left arm and a sword appeared from within the orange mouth. He pointed it at the door, but didn't touch it. Instead he twisted the blade and the door split in two, swinging towards the inside of the room ahead.

"Where are we going?"

"The Hall of the Fallen Warriors; where all the defeated Royal Knights and great heroes await reconfiguration. It is here that we have placed our most valuable artifact"

"And what is it?"

"The Digi-Egg of one of the Ancient Kings, and _you_ will bring him back to life"

**_While extremely knowledgeable and able to exercise some power in the human world, Yggdrasil is virtually powerless in the digital world and acts as a mentor to the Royal Knights, who have sworn to protect him. It is said that there is another being like him, but he remains in the shadows, only appearing when absolutely necessary. _**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

The room was virtually identical to Yggdrasil's "lair". They had never told me _that_ was the name of the room, but I decided it was appropriate to name it lair. This room was about twice the size, and was surrounded by multiple pillars; each containing one of those egg shaped data packages I had seen when Allomon had been defeated.

"These are the Digi-Eggs of the fallen Royal Knights, and other great warriors of the digital world. Their data has been stolen and so they can't be reconfigured until it is recovered", Leopardmon explained, "We also were able to recover the digi-egg of the Seraphimon, the Ancient King of the Haven Islands"

"This is why we brought you here", Omnimon interjected, "Your digivice contains the last of his data. When a digimon dies we all have the ability to reconfigure…or reincarnate, but we can't do it if we don't have the data. Data is the code that gives us our shape, name, ability etc. All of these eggs are of digimon whose data has been stolen or stored away…just like the Haven King's. His data, thankfully, was given to Yggdrasil during The Fall"

"And the digivice is what we need to do it?", I asked as we walked

"Yes"

"Will he be able to become just like before?"

"No. Our Lord Yggdrasil has informed us that even if we recovered all the Digi-Eggs of the Kings, none of them would re-possess their old forms. As such, they would have to achieve new ones", Omnimon stated.

"They are all for lost Kings?"

"We are not sure, but our Lord may know", Leopardmon said

Before anything else could be said we had reached a central pedestal. It contained another egg, but this one did not seem to be made up of the same codes like the others. This one was silver with a golden crest in the front, and I assumed it was a royal symbol.

" This is the place. Point your digivice, you must transfer the data back into the egg", Leopardmon commanded.

"How?"

"That is unknown to us, the mechanism is unique to humans", Omnimon said.

I wondered if it was like when I had opened the hideout. What did I do? Pointing at the egg with my right hand, I stared forward awaiting a reaction, but nothing happened.

"Perhaps this is not the right human", muttered Leopardmon to his companion, possibly unaware that I could hear him. The comment made me angry however and I felt my grip tighten as I kept the screen in line with the symbol on the egg. I felt my heart beat pick up speed and felt determined to prove the knight wrong.

A familiar high-pitched noise came from the digivice and a data stream began to flow. It followed the same pattern of blue and white I had seen in Allomon. Within seconds the egg had absorbed it entirely and its symbol began to glow. Omnimon gave a satisfied nod while Leopardmon emitted an almost inaudible groan.

The egg burst into a million shining pieces, which in turn disintegrated after a second. Behind the colorful explosion was a small creature I could only assume was a digimon. He was sitting on the pillar with a look of total confusion, had brown fur and a pair of tails. Seeing as no one was speaking, I decided to be the first to greet the digimon.

"Hi, I'm Charlie, you must be Seraphimon", this drew a chuckle from Omnimon, but I was not able to hear it.

"Seraphimon?", the digimon said with a tilt of his head, "That's a funny name…my name is Patamon!", he jumped down from the pedestal and used his minuscule wings to glide forth and land right into my chest. Reflexively I held the digimon and it smiled in return.

"Now that this is settled", Leopardmon began, "Let us return to Lord Yggdrasil, and see what is to be done about…_Patamon_", the tone in which he said it almost seemed like disgust and the newborn digimon was quick to glare at the knight. He quickly got over it, though, for he began to ask me a ton of questions; some of which were:

"You're a human right? I have never met humans. What is that weird armor you are wearing? (My hoodie) Why don't human names end in mon like me? Did you just hatch too?"

I answered all of them as best I could, trying to explain to him that while I didn't just hatch, I had just arrived. I realized that this reconfiguration process was a sort of digital reincarnation, Patamon remembers nothing of his previous existence as a great ruler, and looking at him now hardly inspires much confidence on his future potential as a warrior. He did seem like a great friend though, albeit talkative.

When we returned to Yggdrasil's lair we found another huge digimon standing in front of him, but this one was clad in metal armor and wielded a lance and a shield. What was truly strange was that he was about to strike the orb with his weapon. Omnimon moved with amazing speed, gliding through the air and blocking the strike with his sword.

"Why?", Omnimon asked, obviously pained. The armored figure did not respond, instead he fell back into a defensive position. A new figure appeared next to him, his entrance marked by a shining light that reminded me of teleportation systems in my favorite videogames. Leopardmon gasped as he saw the black armor the new figure was wearing.

"Alphamon", he said quietly.

**_Seraphimon's power can be estimated. If one were to measure the power of a MagnaAngemon and were to accurately imagine the increase once the Mega level is achieved, then his power level would be understood _**[When he is not used for fodder by TV writers].**_ In this digital world, however, there is another process to be considered._**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

Alphamon stood proudly, observing the two shocked knights. He exchanged a glance with his ally, and then returned to face us. Leopardmon had already unsheathed his sword and stood right next to us; Omnimon remained in front of them, blocking them from striking Yggdrasil.

"Not you too, Gallantmon", he said

Gallantmon did not respond, instead he lunged, lance pointed at Omnimon. Knowing that dodging would result with the attack landing Yggdrasil, the Royal Knight leader instead positioned his blade so that the point of Gallantmon's lance stabbed the side of the blade itself. He was not sure if the technique would work, so he also activated his right-hand cannon, which made me gasp in surprise.

Contrary to Omnimon's expectation, his opponent _did_ crash upon the waiting blade; a move he didn't think his former comrade would make. Shaking off the surprise, he pushed Gallantmon back using his sword and repositioned himself, this time ready for a true fight. In one move they both disappeared from view, only to reappear half a second later on the other side of the room, weapons raised and clashing.

The repeated the process a few times, all ending in a similar way. Eventually they landed only a few meters in front of us, grunting as they fought for an opening. Gallantmon then pushed Omnimon, who in the process of recovering saw his adversary point his shield towards us. Leopardmon also noticed and grabbed both Patamon and I and leaped to the left, narrowly avoiding a large beam emanating from the shield.

When he put us down I felt Patamon trembling, and it made me feel so powerless. There was no possible way I could help here, and if the Knights were defeated then Patamon would surely be next, not to mention what might happen to me. I gave Patamon my most comforting look possible and hoped that it might at least soothe him a little.

Omnimon had regained his composure and observed the display of power by Gallantmon, but noticed the beam was much slower and smaller than the last time he had seen it. The thought that followed made him give a nervous chuckle.

"You are not Gallantmon, are you?"

"Sharp as always old man. Yes, you are right, that isn't your old friend", Alphamon said in a surprisingly deep voice. He then nodded and a data stream enveloped the silver knight. Within a second it un-winded and revealed yet another black figure, he looked like a metallic lion. His skin was ebony with golden trims and he stood about as tall as Alphamon's knee, sporting a mean smile.

"I believe you have not met my subordinate, JagerLowemon, he has already had the incredible honor of taking your friend's data. I must say the fight I had with him was glorious, but in the end not even the most chivalrous of you traitors is enough to best me."

Omnimon grunted at the comment and redirected his eyes to Leopardmon, both nodded in apparent understanding and the beastly digimon leapt to his side. JagerLowemon scoffed and shifted back to the form of Gallantmon only this time he was all black. _They really like black, _I thought.

Omnimon stepped to the left, while Leopardmon did the same to the right. Suddenly they both attacked, Omnimon shot his cannon at Alphamon and Leopardmon lunged towards the faux Gallantmon. Alphamon leapt in the air, his white-gold feathers making it seem like a majestic glide. Meanwhile the Dark Gallantmon blocked the fencer-like stab from Leopardmon and countered with his own lunge.

The attack lacked the finesse that was displayed by Leopardmon's previous attempt at a stab, this one looked more like he was trying to use an oversized knife instead of a lance. Because of this, Leopardmon was able to easy push it aside with his own weapon and resume the attack in the same, fluid movement. While his moves seemed graceful there was a fire in his eyes, like a chained animal trying to bite his bindings off.

At the same time, Alphamon had landed on the area of charred ground where Omnimon's last attack had landed. His cape fluttered as he stepped forward and simply stared Omnimon down.

The white-clad knight was not so lax; he raised his cannon once more and fired, this time the beam was much larger than the last. Instead of moving upwards, Alphamon lifted himself only a few meters off the ground and then shifted to the right, adjusting his course so it went straight towards Omnimon. Omnimon prepared himself but was surprised to see Alphamon stop halfway.

The former knight had stopped and was now pointing his right hand in the direction of Yggdrasil.

"Digitalize of the Soul!", he exclaimed as he fired at the sage's orb.

**_When dealing with unique digimon such as Royal Knights, Sovereign, Kings, Celestials, etc. It is often noted that the absorbed data, when not belonging to the original owner, seems weaker in combat. For example, if one were to absorb Azulongmon's data and then take his form using said data, it would be significantly weaker than if Azulongmon himself possessed it. _**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**

Omnimon had very little time to react as he saw the beam fire towards his Lord. He flew towards it and blocked it with his own body, letting out an agonizing scream. Alphamon did not seemed phased; instead he walked over to the fallen warrior. Not too far away, I was watching the battle unfold, with Patamon covering his eyes and peeking every now and then.

I couldn't believe that beings so powerful existed but had strangely gotten used to the concept soon after Omnimon's brief battle with JagerLowemon's other form. The shock I felt now was from seeing that same powerful digimon lying wounded, with his enemy only about ten paces away.

To the far right it seemed Leopardmon was having less trouble dealing with his adversary. After observing his battle with Omnimon, and few dodges and parries of his own, he had understood the pattern of his attacks. Furthermore he was almost sure that the acquisition of the power was rather recent, for there were still abilities that he knew Gallantmon possessed that had not been used in this battle. It was also apparent that using this stole data had taken its toll as each time they ceased clashing, the black knight panted audibly. He knew that it was time to defeat him; it would only be just. At that moment both stood facing each other, and never looked away. Leopardmon flicked his sword in his hand to loosen his wrist and prepared a simple plan to deal with this imposter.

"I was not intending to use this while in the presence of my Lord, but if I _must_"

He lifted his sword in the air and a stream of code burst forth from the tip. It soon enveloped the Royal Knight, moments later it receded into Leopardmon's new form.

"Leopard Mode", he said as he ran forward, now on all fours. The transformation seemed almost minimal; it was still the same digimon, but now he was not bipedal and simply lacked a visible weapon. The disguised JagerLowemon seemed to flinch and began to lift his weapons, but Leopardmon yelled:

"Wolkenkrazer!"

As he uttered the word, three pillars of stone emerged from the ground beneath the dark Gallantmon, causing him to move as fast as he could to attempt to avoid them. Because of this, he had left himself wide open, and Leopardmon had closed in. With one swipe of his claw he slashed the imposter through the chest and while he receded he flicked his tail and set up the last attack, named Eroberung.

The technique had created a circle of landmines around the enemy and to even attempt to remove one would trigger all the others. The faux Gallantmon seemed familiar with the attack and soon reverted back to his original form of JagerLowemon. He looked over to his master pleadingly, and Alphamon, still walking towards the defeated Omnimon; accepted the silent request.

JagerLowemon grinned and looked at Leopardmon saying, "See you next time", and then disappeared with the same teleportation system Alphamon had used. Leopardmon seemed upset for a moment to see his enemy escape certain defeat, but quickly got over it and ran towards Omnimon.

Alphamon was only about two paces away now, and was beginning to raise his arm for the next attack. Omnimon had just risen, using his sword to help him, and faced his enemy with the fiercest look he could muster. But before Alphamon fired upon the weakened warrior, Leopardmon was behind him yelling: "Wolkenkrazer". The same stone pillars blocked Alphamon's path and enveloped Yggdrasil's orb.

"You're late", Omnimon said wearily

Leopardmon did not respond, instead he began attacking Alphamon with the same ferocity he had displayed with JagerLowemon, but Alphamon was able to avoid almost every shot. The ones that did make contact were shallow, and allowed for them to continue. Omnimon knew the animal-like knight was merely buying time for Omnimon to recover. After a minute or so, Omnimon lunged forth and began firing upon their fallen 'savior'. Alphamon apparently did not see if coming for he barely missed the first shot coming from Omnimon's wolf-like arm.

The battle raged on and it seemed that for once Alphamon had fallen on the defensive; his shots no longer followed a particular target but were more akin to cover fire. As we stood and watched I felt an odd tapping on my left shoulder. Startled, I turned around as fast as I could and was relieved to see Wizardmon crouched low behind me.

"We need to leave, now. Follow me"

I wanted to tell him to stop, to help the Royal Knights who were trying desperately to protect Yggdrasil, Patamon and I, but as I thought of how to say it I realized that it would be a waste to do so. They were clearly too powerful for Wizardmon and Patamon and I wouldn't be much help. To add onto that it'd be letting Alphamon know that we have been able to revive the Haven King, whose presence he had not apparently noticed. With that in mind I followed Wizardmon out of the room and into an awaiting tunnel with the familiar console to the right. Patamon did not say a word, apparently still in shock form the battle we had witnessed

"Where are we going?", I asked Wizardmon

"To find your friend"

**_Data tunnels were invented by Yggdrasil following The Fall. They are simple systems that used pre-programmed data cards to access terminals built across the digital world. Depending on the length of the journey, the tunnels may be extremely long or short. The building on these stations was relatively simple as they were simply added onto outposts that had been there since the early times of the Age of Kings. _**


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen, Perspective Change: Alex**

I didn't dare move a muscle, as I was obviously outnumbered. Biting my lip, I realized I was the only one to blame. It was foolish to follow Wizardmon into the tunnel, for all I knew it could have been a trap, and now I seemed correct, but what about that kid? Was he also in this situation? I was not sure, but it made no difference. All around me, in the dimly lit tunnel, were four samurai-looking digimon and one small armored one. Its mask was dark and all I could see were it's glowing yellow eyes. Strangely it seemed this minuscule digimon was the true commander of the assault.

I had been running down the tunnel at a moderate pace when I was intercepted by these digimon and was quickly herded to speak with their petite leader.

"What do you want?", I spat before the digimon even began.

The digimon was clearly surprised by my tone, even though his expression was fully hidden behind the mask. The digimon looked me over; playing with a sort of wooden stick I would later find out is called a Shinai.

"My name is Kotemon, the Musaymon and I were sent here to retrieve you by our master, JagerLowemon", the digimon said in an effeminate voice.

"Like I care who sent you…what does he want?!", the digimon was even more visibly upset and immediately proceeded to point his shinai at me.

"Do. Not. _Dare_ speak about him like that", she said. I did not answer, so she continued, "I wonder if you humans are all the same…"

"You _still_ haven't answered my question. What does he want with me?"

"Why don't we go ask him?"

She then motioned the Musaymon and we began marching back to the terminal. After a little bit of walking we arrived back at the red brick hideout. It took my best effort not to gasp. Standing near the carved wall was an enormous metallic lion. He seemed tired, but nonetheless exhibited an aura of power and authority. He redirected his gaze to me, and I felt as if he stared right into me, but I kept my head high as if nothing was wrong. I wanted to slap myself out of it, after all I had already encountered another large strange digimon and the Musaymon, but this one was different.

JagerLowemon moved closer to me and I fought the urge to flinch. The digimon stopped moving and smiled, saying:

"I apologize. I have been told that this form is quite…intimidating"

He then became enveloped in the code that I had seen from the battle in the desert; quickly exiting from it enveloped in a new form. In this one he resembled a human, but there were multiple lion heads embedded onto his armor.

"In this state I am referred to as Lowemon…hopefully you will find it to be less threatening", he turned his attention to Kotemon, " You have done well Kotemon, I'd say this was a successful rescue mission"

"Rescue?!", I blurted angrily. _Idiot_, I thought. In situations like these I knew I should have held my tongue, but I let my anger get to me.

"Of course it was a rescue", Lowemon said calmly, "Believe me Wizardmon and these 'Royal Knights' are nothing but propaganda. 'Admirable' people leading a ridiculous cause; they are mere group of traitors that deny Alphamon's kindness"

_The same kindness that almost killed me out there in the dessert_. I didn't want to answer that though, I wanted to see what this digimon had to offer.

"So what now?"

"We must rescue the other human, who knows what those _fools_ might do to him"

I was not particularly fond of the freshman boy, but it did make sense to retrieve the only other human in this world. I sighed and waited for him to elaborate, but when he didn't I asked:

"And then what?"

"We take back what's ours"

_**Alexandra had recently moved into Paul and Charlie's town because of her father's work. Her father was a soldier and had just been transferred to the area, forcing her yet again to readjust. She did not hold her father against it, but she always wished they could stay somewhere for more than two years. **_


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen [Charlie]**

The tunnel was much shorter this time, and a quick walk got us out of there within a few minutes. At the exit was a base similar to the one in the desert; only this one was made of a different stone that reminded me of stone castles, but these were also, in some areas, covered with moss. Upon looking at the carved wall I realized those must have been some of the Kings that Yggdrasil had mentioned. Among them stood an armored Angel with one hand outstretched as if commanding a vast army to move forth.

"Wizardmon, who is that?", I asked, which caused the cloaked digimon to emit a small chuckle.

"I see Lord Yggdrasil and his knights waste no time in letting you know of our history. That is who you think it is, the King of the Haven Islands. They say his kingdom was massive, but unique since it was the only one that was completely suspended in the air. Because of this it was mainly populated by angel-type digimon, and had other flying species, but all were welcome. Seraphimon's people are a rare sight these days; much has passed since then, and they have not had it easy…", he stopped and looked at Patamon, then continued:

"…But I wonder if their luck is about to change. Well right now we must leave this place, clearly Alphamon is well aware of the hideouts", with that he turned around and began leading Patamon and I out the door. As we walked down the hall Patamon had decided to land on my shoulder, only to keep moving around and adjusting himself every second or so.

"Are you okay, Patamon?", I asked

"Yeah, I just…it's hard to find the _comfiest_ spot", he said, frowning in concentration.

I am not sure why but at the time I found the statement hilarious. I let out a loud laugh and realized it must have been the first time I laughed since that nervous chuckle I had released in the desert. Patamon was not sure why I was laughing and quickly turned his frown to a questioning one.

"Its nothing Patamon, you keep trying"

We reached the stairs and it seemed Patamon had finally found his comfiest spot, settling for simply sitting himself on my shoulder blade and leaning his head against my neck. The position was uncomfortable at first, but eventually I got used to it, you could say it was much like all the other things so far in the digital world.

The top of the stairs led us to a pile of dirt at the ceiling. Wizardmon frowned for a second and then looked at me expectantly. Still thinking about Patamon's predicament, it took me a moment to realize that he wanted me to use my digivice once more.

"Oh…right!", I said as I fumbled to retrieve it from my belt. I pointed the digivice at the top of the stairwell and saw the patch of dirt begin to fall in just like the sand had back at the desert. Wizardmon walked out first, using his staff to poke at the stone and dirt in front of him before stepping; I followed with Patamon still resting at my shoulder.

We exited into a dense forest and behind I saw the dirt reconfigure atop the staircase. Patamon took flight, but still stuck close to my shoulder. All around us were trees much thinner than those leading to Yggdrasil, but also much taller. Off in the distance you could hear what I thought was machinery, or some other kind of rhythmic clanking.

"Where are we?"

"We are near the outskirts of Volt, it is a sort of major hub in the south, and where we'll be hiding from Alphamon"

I frowned in confusion; based on what I have seen, it was obvious that Alphamon had a significant influence on the digital world. So wouldn't a major city be crawling with his people?

"He doesn't have any allies there?"

"His army populates all of the cities and most of the towns, leaving the more remote sections relatively unsupervised, but if he saw you then that is where he'd look first. Besides, there are very important allies here"

Patamon stayed silent thought the conversation, seemingly content with looking around the trees. I had to remind myself that he was still a newborn.

"You will take refuge with the resistance at their head quarters. They call themselves the Restoration Army and are supporters of the Royal Knights; you will be safer among them, especially since laying low under Alphamon's radar is their specialty.

"Wizardmon, what did you mean by finding my friend?"

"I am aware that you and Alex were separated, and I fear she might have fallen into enemy hands by now. Because of this I hope that the intelligence groups at the rebel base might be able to lead us to her"

"Oh…"

"Is something wrong?"

"Is there any way of knowing if another human has entered this world?"

"Not unless you have a certain anomaly scanner, but that is not something one carries around. Why do you ask?"

"I thought, no, I still think that my friend is here. Not Alex, but someone else"

"Then there is only one way to find out"

With that we began a mildly paced march across the forest, but I was truly unaware as to where we were going. Eventually he stopped, turning around and this time seeming a bit more distant.

"This is where I must leave, Charlie, Patamon; we will meet again"

"Wait but we don't even know where we are supposed to meet these digimon!"

Wizardmon began drawing power and his orb was emitting a light that began to envelop the digimon. Before it was able to completely swallow him he said, "No worries, they already know you are here", and then he vanished, leaving Patamon and I alone in the forest.

_Volt is named for the Trailmon station at the center of the city called Volt Terminal. Originally that was all that stood in this section of the digital world, but eventually people decided to settle around it and it expanded into the enormous city that is currently known. It is often called the "Southern Capital of the Digital World" _


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen**

Patamon stiffened as he realized the time for daydreaming was over. Although he was still a newborn it seemed digimon were much more developed for conflict assessment than humans would be at that age.

I looked back and noticed that Wizardmon had led us through a fairly marked trail. From my times exploring the woods back at home I figured they were either made by other digimon or simply leading somewhere. Hoping it was the latter; I began walking with Patamon flying to my right.

"Charlie…you know something...I am hungry", the digimon said in a surprisingly cheerful tone.

"Well buddy if we can find these people then maybe they'll have food"

As if on queue we heard a rustling on a nearby bush. My head immediately snapped in its direction, and Patamon seemed to shift from his carefree attitude to one of combat. To be honest if I hadn't been watching out for whatever was behind the bush I would have been shocked. While his face was not intimidating, he sure wanted to look like it.

"I'll protect you", he said

From the bush emerged a digimon that could be best described as a circular ninja. He was shorter than I was, wearing red garments and had a sword slung to his back.

"Human. Follow me", he said with small yet precise voice. It almost gave the impression that he had rehearsed the line.

"Who are you?", I demanded, not willing to follow any digimon that popped out of the bushes.

"Ninjamon, leader of the Fourth Shinobi Spy Squad. I am with the Restoration Army", he said with a noticeable pride in his tone.

Patamon quickly loosened up, and seemed to be at ease with the digimon. I figured it'd be best to follow this digimon.

"I'm Charlie, and this is Patamon", I said patting the small digimon's head. Ninjamon did not respond, he simply nodded and then pointed to the right. I acknowledged and followed him as he led us away from the path and into the thick woods.

After a bit of walking we arrived at a small circular area covered with various leaves and vines. Ninjamon carefully removed them and opened what seemed like a submarine hatch.

"In here", he instructed as he opened the metallic door. We followed and entered first, and the stair descended into a long corridor with one huge door bearing inscriptions like the ones on the digivice. Ninjamon took his time to descend, presumably fixing the vines and leaves so that they landed on top of the metallic surface. He then leaped down and produced a card, which when he inserted it produced a loud click. The door opened slowly revealing a hall with multiple doors labeled in the same strange code.

He led us through the hall, but never took us into any of the rooms; instead he simply kept walking. The hall was not by any means deserted as multiple digimon, that I figured were all part of the rebellion, hurried by doing their daily activities. It was hardly uncommon to get a few stares and I was feeling pretty uncomfortable, but I ignored it by talking to Patamon.

We arrived at yet another large door at the end of the hall, where Ninjamon asked us to stay put. He then leaped in the air and out of sight, as if he had somehow gone through the roof. I sort of shrugged at the display; I was trying not to be surprised by every single thing in this world, but barely succeeded.

"Hey, do you think any of those rooms had food?", Patamon said in a whisper

"I'm sure one of them has to…you're still thinking about food?"

"Yeah", he said as if I had stated something incredibly obvious, "what else should I be worried about?"

While I did have more than a few things I could have answered him, I kept them to myself, no need to trouble the poor digimon.

Ninjamon appeared within a few minutes with a more relaxed attitude, and he told us that their leader, a digimon named Leomon, was waiting for us in the command center.

_If a human were to die in the digital world, it is for some reason believed that their body would re-materialize in their world. Some claim this knowledge is based on the accounts predating The Fall, while others believe it is mere superstition. Some go as far to say that humans are not real and were mere stories that blew out of proportion. _


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter Eighteen**

The large door swung open to reveal a massive room bustling with energy. The room contained a set of quarter-circle shaped consoles ordered with three ascending levels. The first level contained the largest amount of systems and was manned by Guardromon. It seemed they were doing more menial work than the digimon in the second level. In the second were about half as many as in the first and were being used by Monitamon who were completely engrossed with their work. Finally at the third level were four consoles; a single Datamon was operating each one. They all seemed to be unaware of their surroundings and I assumed were completing the hardest tasks.

There was, however, a fourth level. This one was a plain circular platform save for a set of guardrails and a smaller instrument panel on one side. Standing on the platform was a large andromorphic lion. He stood tall with his head held up high, wearing nothing but a pair of short pants and a thick sword strapped to his lower back. His arms were crossed as he received status updates from the technicians in the other levels and issued orders in response. I was sure this had to be Leomon.

The whole thing had been a new level of impressiveness for me, as I had only seen this type of command center in movies, and I hardly thought I'd ever be a part of something like it. Patamon was in a similar state of awe, although I doubt it was for the same reasons.

We headed up the steps that stood in between each level; they reminded me on the sports fields I had visited back at the human world, but strangely enough I was not feeling too nostalgic at the time. As we crossed the consoles we noticed some of the Monitamon would stare at us, only to fake a sneeze whenever we turned in their direction. Patamon and I laughed quietly at the display and proceeded.

When we reached the highest level, Leomon shut off his console and walked over to greet us. From up close I realized the digimon was much taller than I had thought, and had it not been for his warm smile, I would have been extremely intimidated. Thankfully I wasn't, but Patamon couldn't help but to dig his face onto my shoulder.

"Welcome to the Resistance Army Headquarters", Leomon said in a voice that I thought was appropriate.

"Hello…I'm uh Charlie and this is Patamon", I said while pointing at the still hidden digimon on my right shoulder. Leomon seemed to be lost in thought for a second, but then said:

"Oh right! Forgive me, I had forgotten", he then extended a hand for a handshake. I accepted and felt my hand being almost crushed by the digimon's strong grip. I smiled through the pain and then listened to him as he continued.

"You must have many questions. I may be able to answer some but I must ask, are you all right? Have you had anything to eat or drink recently?"

To this Patamon jumped right out of his hiding spot and answered:

"Yes!"

"Excellent. Strong warriors need to keep fed; let me lead you to the common room and then afterwards you can have a word with our leader"

"Wait so you are not the leader?", I asked

"Oh, no. Although sometimes I might as well be", he said jokingly. Some of the Datamon chuckled at the comment, but quickly resumed their duties. Leomon motioned us to one of the halls and eventually led us into a large eating room.

There were lines upon lines of wooden and tables with one metallic one in the center, all of them full of hungry digimon. Chatter filled the room and I noticed that at the end of the metallic table were two large chairs. Leomon retrieved a few floppy disks and for a moment I was not sure what he was getting at. When he placed them upon the table he waved one hand over them and three plates full of a wide assortment of foods appeared. I noticed Leomon had taken two disks for himself while giving Patamon and I one each. Then again, it would make sense that such a giant lion needed that much sustenance.

Patamon dug in immediately, and I was soon to follow. I was surprised to see that this digital food felt and tasted exactly the same as the food back in my world. Leomon took a seat on one of the large seats at the end of the metal table.

The meal was quiet, until Leomon rose once again. I was too distracted to notice, but Patamon would look up occasionally. After a little I heard someone clearing his throat and I looked up to see whom it was.

My jaw fell open as I saw Paul, digivice in hand, smiling at me from the other side of the table.

"Surprise?", he said

_Sometimes the Royal Knights, like the Kings before them, were revered as deities by lower-level digimon. It is hardly uncommon to find statues of a wide assortment of knights, but all Pantheons have a ruler, and all of them hail Alphamon as such. It is because of this that many believe that those who oppose him are little more than infidels against their divine ruler. _


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter Nineteen**

The room was silent; all the chatter from before vanished once Paul had entered the room. Now all eyes were on us as he stood before me. I had to admit I was in complete shock. While I was not searching for Paul for a particularly long time, it was constantly in the back of my mind, and that was the reason I had ventured into this world.

He was still positioned in the same spot even after a few minutes of silence, and it seemed no one would dare speak until I had answered him. In those minutes I looked art Paul several times. I figured it had been about two days since I had last seen him, but he physically he looked very different. The usual chubby build I was accustomed to seeing had been replaced by a visible amount of muscle tone. Also, he seemed at least a few centimeters taller than before with what I was sure was the stubbly beginnings of a beard.

"Is something wrong?", Paul said, deciding to break the silence.

It was at that moment that I realized what action would be most appropriate for the situation. Without a word I rounded the table, noticing up close that he was indeed taller than two days ago, and embraced him in a hug. This was something we usually had reserved for more major occurrences, usually deciding for the more 'macho' fist-bumps on all other sorts of greetings. The last time we had hugged was after a fight in school a year or two ago where he and I fought a group of older high-schoolers and got so beat we were just glad to have left with our faces intact.

Paul smiled and said nothing for a handful of heartbeats, and as I disengaged he seemed to straighten himself for a moment.

"There's a lot we have to talk about, come on"

With that we headed to another room on the northern hall. Patamon, apparently able to read the strange language written everywhere on this world, told me that it said "Meeting Room". Inside was a large round table with enough seats to fit a group of about twenty, or at least that was my rough estimate. Before I could say anything though, Paul began to speak.

"Maybe I should go from the start. I have been researching this anomaly back in town since the end of the summer. You remember the strange power outages back then, right? Well at first I didn't think much of it but then I noticed they only seemed to affect digital equipment like TVs and computers, but not my lamp or anything.

Eventually, right before I came here, I was able to pinpoint where it was coming from; the outskirts right outside of town which had all the abandoned factories."

"Yeah but all they were making were shoes and sweaters"

"Or so they said…In any case I went over there late in the afternoon, and noticed the area was completely abandoned. Just in case I walked into any trouble I had taken my old baseball bat, you know, the one from Little League? Walking through the front door was not an option, whoever last owned the place left it with a ridiculously heavy lock. A quick search around the place led me to a few windows that were completely black from the grime. They were large and I didn't really want to go back home with nothing, so I kind of slammed the bat into the window a few times until it broke.

Once inside I realized this really was no factory at all. I was awe-struck, but after a few seconds I began to scan the area. I was expecting an old shoe factory with maybe some sort of equipment that was giving off a signal or something, I don't know. I just didn't think it'd be what I found"

"And what was it?"

"An entire building, massive, full of strange and enormous computer equipment. They were lined all over the place. It was truly a sight to see. If we make it out of here I gotta show you. But the weirdest part…was how I got this", he said while holding up his digivice.

_If a human were to die in the digital world, it is believed that their body would reappear in their world post-mortem. As all major digital world beliefs on humans, they are all based on vague accounts from times that either did not keep records or simply were destroyed. _


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter Twenty**

"The area was massive, as I said before, and it took me a few walk-throughs to fully understand what I was looking at. It was modeled like one of those old computers you hear about all the time in history classes, but this one looked like way newer tech, perhaps only a few years old. The place was also surprisingly spotless, and didn't feel abandoned on the inside, as a matter of fact I was sometimes wondering if someone would pop in at some point.

All computer systems though seemed to be wire-connected to a central system. The 'Core' was a semi-cylindrical shape in the middle of the first floor of the building and had one monitor screen in the front. I put down my bat next to it and began tapping it, wondering if it was a touch screen.

After a few taps I realized it had a keyboard hidden underneath, so I pulled it up only to find a log in page. I tried a bunch of different passwords but none seemed to work; frustrated I banged on the machine once. I cursed under my breath as the computer's rhythmic operation shifted, giving off a strange set of metallic noises. The screen came to life and I saw this strange white screen. Suddenly words began to be typed and I read them out loud.

'Human. Are you ready?'

Quickly I typed in response.

'Who are you?'

'Who I am? Not important. You have just made your first step into fulfilling your destiny. A new world beckons. Will you accept?'

Now I really was not sure what was going on. I sort of assumed it was some sort of trick. I had just come to the factory to find out why my Internet kept crashing, not for my 'destiny'. Thinking back I should have asked him more questions, but oh well, what I did tell him was something like:

'I do, now what?'

'You join us'

With that, the words disappeared and the light intensified, making me have to hold my hand up in front of my face to protect from the brightness. I then realized it was forming a circle and suddenly a beam shot out. It gave out a strange sound, like feedback on a microphone, and ended up landing on the floor next to me. I looked over and saw the digivice, just sitting there with a small pile of smoke around it. I picked it up and eyed it, only to hear the screen beeping. I remember it read:

Barrier Removed: Digital Gate Opening

The screen was black and the writing was in large blue letters; I also noticed all the other machines began to shut down, with only a handful still operational. The screen then shifted back to white and the odd text reappeared.

'Are you ready?'

I was amazingly confused, but oddly excited. I said yes, but not in the keyboard, but out-loud. Odly enough whoever was typing heard me and wrote:

'Good'

The screen blackened once more and a new line of green text appeared.

Digital Gate open

And that's how it happened"

Patamon had been paying full attention to Paul, and so had I. Once he had finished he sighed and looked at us for a second. He was about to speak again when a lone Monitamon appeared from the hallway.

"Paul, sir, we have a problem"

"What is it?", asked Leomon

"We are under attack", he said gravely.

_Human governments have deployed agents to various areas of the world for unspecified reasons. The most unusual aspect is that most of the members are not law enforcement but computer scientists and some civilian personnel. _


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter Twenty-one**

Paul's story had amazing implications. Whatever he had done was directly responsible for the activation of the digital gate. Did that mean that was also the reason for my own gate activating? More importantly, was the person we spoke to Yggdrasil, or someone else? I had no time to think about such things at the moment, for we had recently been told there was an attack.

As we hurried onto the command center we heard a deafening alarm. It seemed the entire base was now aware of the problem. After climbing to the central station at the top of the now extremely active room. Orders were being shouted from the Datamon to the Monitamon and they, respectively, shouted towards the Guardromon.

"Status report!", Leomon barked

"Sir, the base itself is not under attack, but a squad is engaged near access port 2B", a Datamon answered.

"That's way too close to the city, they would never dare bring an army here!"

"Who's in that squad?", Paul asked

"It's the guard in the area. We were running low on personnel and the Fourth Shinobi squad offered. There seem to be only a few enemies, perhaps under ten."

"That's the Ninjamon that brought us here!", I blurted

Paul rushed over to the nearby console and began typing. I noticed all the lettering was in the same language that all the other thins seemed to be written in this world. Patamon seemed extremely confused, but when I asked him what was wrong he replied by stating that he felt something strange. Within about a minute Paul returned with a grim look of his face.

"There are no nearby reinforcements available"

"Then we'll go! We have to do something", I stated and Paul chuckled; scratching his head thoughtfully.

"Always going in head-first, but you're right; we must go. Monitamon! Tell Halsemon to stand by for EVAC. Charlie, Leomon, let's go"

"You forgot me!", Patamon yelled.

"Right…you too Patamon", Paul said as he started heading down the stairs.

We rounded the command center and exited through the eastern hallway and eventually ran up a set of stairs with a familiar patch of dirt for a roof. While Paul fumbled for his digivice I had raised mine in anticipation and lifted it, causing the roof to collapse and revealing our exit. Leomon smirked as Paul finally produced his digivice.

It only took a second for us to locate the battle. About four hundred meters or so from the exit was the sound of clashing metal. In between the Ninjamon and us were three large dinosaur digimon.

All I could see behind the digimon were about five different Ninjamon battling with other creatures at incredibly high speeds. It reminded me of the battle between JagerLowemon and Omnimon, although I could tell these digimon were not on par with Royal Knights.

"DarkTyrannomon", Leomon said as if pronouncing a vile disease

"Damn it!", Paul spat, "These are all Champion level"

"Champion level?", I asked

"I'll explain later…right now…Leomon it's time"

Paul lifted his digivice and a string of code burst forth from Leomon's body. The set of code then enveloped him, forming an oval shape that was constantly shifting, as the data seemed to be going through a scanning process. The shape seemed to stop its motion and then quickly broke apart, revealing Leomon, but this time his coloration was different. Instead of the vibrant yellow, his whole body was pale white. He was otherwise unchanged and his aura seemed, colder. He roared and exclaimed his name for all to hear:

"IceLemon!"

_While many digimon have the potential to become creatures of great power, such as a Veemon becoming Magnamon, not all digimon are destined to do so. Various factors including environmental interactions and the current circumstances of the digital world make a difference in such outcomes. Some believe that Yggdrasil also plays a role in this, something the Royal Knights have publicly denied. _


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter Twenty-two**

IceLeomon stood proudly for a few hear-beats, apparently taking in the feelings of digivolution. He was also looking at his adversaries, and I wondered if he was weighing their strength in his mind.

He walked over at an almost calm pace and released his sword. It looked just like the one from his previous form but the shining skin now seemed more brilliant as it reflected his ice-cold skin. The DarkTyrannomon seemed to flinch, but only for a second, before two of them stepped forward to face IceLeomon. Paul had walked over to me, and began speaking as we awaited the inevitable confrontation.

"Charlie. Digimon have power levels you see…Patamon, for example, is a Rookie level…in simpler terms we could say he is in the third stage. Many digimon stay like this but others, like Leomon, eventually reach the Champion form. With our help, and the digivices, we can allow them to advance to an even higher level; the Ultimate level"

"Is that what he is now?"

"Yes. An Ultimate-level digimon could be easily twice as strong as a Champion and they normally boast amazing speed, power and stamina. You don't see too many around lately"

"Wow. But how do we have anything to do with this process? Wouldn't they reach that level anyway?"

"It's possible but it would take much longer. For example I have never really encountered a Mega, the top level, so it suggests that our intervention is almost necessary. Imagine if we sat and waited until our digimon naturally got to that level?"

I nodded and noticed Patamon was leaning forward, attentively listening to Paul's explanation.

"Maybe you'll do it too someday", I said, tapping him once in the head.

IceLeomon was now running towards the first duo of DarkTyrannomon and lilted his blade so it stood in front of him as he ran. The massive digimon braced themselves for an attack, but instead of slashing at them, IceLeomon jumped away from them and headed towards the Ninjamon. Looking over to my left I noticed that Paul was speaking into his digivice.

IceLeomon had almost made it to his comrades, but he was blocked by the last of the DarkTyrannomon. He growled in anger and slashed at him, landing his blade upon the dinosaur digimon's arm. While the cut was not too deep, the piercing scream of the DarkTyrannomon was audible as red particles floated on and around the wound. He did not move, and within a second the other two digimon had returned. IceLeomon was surrounded.

"Jump and use Frozen Fury; it should at least take one of them out", Paul said into the digivice.

Up ahead, you could see the strategy come to life. Accompanied by the already familiar growls, IceLeomon leaped and fired a beam as white as his flowing mane, and rained the blast down upon his enemies. Just as Paul had predicted, one of the DarkTyrannomon fell, but he was not defeated, he simply lay on the ground, multiple red particles surrounded him. It seemed this was the same one that had been slashed earlier, for most of it's artificial bleeding came from his arm.

I noticed that, by watching the battle, Patamon had once again shifted to his hostile mode from the forest. Yet he did not move, and I wondered if he felt powerless by the awe-inspiring display from IceLeomon.

The snow-white digimon had now assumed a position only a few meters away form us, shifting his blade from the reverse-grip to a more traditional one-handed style.

"These two should be easy", he said to us and ran forward, once again ready for the charge. He lifted one of his fists in anticipation for another 'Frozen Fury' when he stopped short.

"What's wrong?", asked Paul

"Look!", Patamon exclaimed while pointing to an area behind the coupled DarkTyrannomon.

The digimon split their formation, allowing a single figure to calmly walk through. She was tall, had light brown hair and a confident look. Upon realizing who this was I ran forward and stopped right behind IceLeomon.

"Alex! What are you doing here?"

I wondered if Wizardmon had found her, after all, how else would she have made it here? She only seemed to smirk, only to lift her digivice in the air soon after. The DarkTyrannomon closed the gap once again, but two words were heard clearly over the sound of the battle that was still going on behind her.

"Digivolve. DarkTyrannomon"

_It is often subject of debate whether beings like Omnimon and other Jogressed digimon have a single consciousness. One school of thought is that they both become one new entity, embracing the views of both. The other believes that both personalities are constantly at odds and only the dominant is externally present. However they both conclude that unless one goes through Jogress it is unlikely we will ever know. _


	23. Chapter 23

_Sorry for not posting yesterday...you could say life threw me a nice curveball yesterday. But here's Chapter 23! _

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-three**

In a flash we saw both the DarkTyrannomon shift form. It seemed the once negligible metal parts in their bodies had taken over, making creatures that seemed more machine than dinosaurs. They also seemed more disoriented, and I wondered if this was an effect of digi-evolution.

It was safe to assume that they were now in the Ultimate level, and one look at Paul's face was enough to confirm my suspicions. The battle behind them was also unchanged, and it seemed that the Ninjamon and their attackers were at a standoff. I could see Alex speaking into her digivice and the cyborg digimon stepped forward; they were trying to intimidate IceLeomon now that their levels matched his.

"IceLeomon, the situation has changed, we need to hold them off until reinforcements arrive"

Through the digivolution and the intimidation I had remained next to IceLeomon, with Patamon on my shoulder. It had not occurred to me that if the digimon attacked, we'd be affected as well. IceLeomon stepped forward, creating a bit of a distance between us.

"Stay where you are, if you can, head back and stay with Paul. These are MetalTyrannomon. He's right, we will have to simply hold off until reinforcements arrive…if they do"

While we had spoken, I noticed one of the MetalTyrannomon had moved away and was out of sight. Paul was not sure where he had gone, but told IceLeomon to advance towards the visible opponent first. He raised his fist to attack, but before that the MetalTyrannomon fired his weapon. IceLeomon dodged and was landing hear a tree to the left, where the second MetalTyrannomon was waiting. I was sure that from the angle Paul was standing it'd be impossible for him to notice in time, so as IceLeomon leapt through the air I stepped forward and yelled "Look Out! Next to the tree!"

Almost immediately, he was able to adjust his landing and slashed at the waiting MetalTyrannomon, but it narrowly avoided the attack. I let out a loud "Yeah" when I saw that it had worked, but my cheerful tone was quickly put to a halt by what I saw in front of me.

Alex had ordered the first MetalTyrannomon to fire at us and with IceLeomon still dealing with the other enemy it seemed we were done for. Patamon yelled, but it was not from terror, it sounded like anger. As the shot drew closer I had to shield my eyes from the brightness. Is it all over?

Suddenly I could hear the unmistakable high-pitched squeal coming from the digivice. It began to glow and I pulled it out as fast as I could. All I saw on the screen were ascending lines, as if a measurement for noise or temperature. Looking up I saw the attack was getting closer, but something was happening to Patamon.

In front of me, Patamon became enveloped in a string of digital code. The shape instantly grew and bust, revealing an angelic form standing in front of me. It was then that I realized Patamon had just digivolved, but into what? The figure was tall and with skin just as white as IceLeomon's; his hair was a vibrant orange and his six wings caused him to be slightly above the ground where he would have been standing.

"What are you?"

"I…am Angemon"

_The angelic people of the Haven King's land have been long considered extinct. Because reincarnation is a natural part of the digital world life cycle, many wonder how it is even possible, but most conclude that their data was taken away by someone, or some__thing__. _


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter Twenty-four**

Caught up in the dramatics of Patamon's first digievolution, we had almost forgotten that we were about to be struck by a digimon's fireball. Angemon put his hands together, then moved them apart, and in between them appeared a golden staff. He swung it downwards and it crashed on the incoming orb, burning the ground in front of him.

Angemon seemed to smirk and then he glided forward, staff pointed at the MetalTyrannomon's neck. The mechanical digimon flinched and quickly lifted his weapon to bear on Angemon. Before he could fire Angemon had already closed the distance, making a point blank shot a suicide.

I noticed that Alex had shifted her attention to the other MetalTyrannomon, leaving this one on his own. Angemon lunged with his weapon's tip pointed at his enemy's chest, but despite his bulky appearance, MetalTyrannomon dodged; the staff barely missing his left arm. This did not seem to bother Angemon, as he quickly repositioned himself and had his staff ready for a new attack.

MetalTyrannomon, in a desperate attempt, began charging his weapon to attack. Reflexively, Angemon crashed his staff upon the loading weapon and the sheer force of the blow broke MetalTyrannomon's balance and he fell to one knee. Angemon stopped his attack just as he saw the enemy's tumble. He turned around, satisfied with his handling of the altercation and began to walk back to where I was standing.

He broke the walk with a small jump, which only elevated him slightly off the ground.

As he glided back, the MetalTyrannomon had risen and brought his own weapon to bear Angemon. Noticing this, I lifted the digivice and said, "He's about to shoot you!", to which he nodded and lifted his right hand, as if to punch the air, exclaiming:

"Hand of Fate!"

A bright orange beam extended from Angemon's fist and landed on MetalTyrannomon's torso. The digimon cried out in pain as the blue data ring materialized in front of him. The scene reminded me of the battle between Wizardmon and Allomon back in the desert. It made me wonder if we could do the same thing as he did. After all, why would we allow this creature to be revived by Alphamon's people?

Lifting my digivice with my right hand, I pointed the screen at the fallen digimon, trying my best to focus on absorbing the data like Wizardmon had done. After a few heartbeats I was rewarded with a sudden beep from the digivice. The ring broke off and slithered in the air, landing on the ringing device. The screen lit up and I could see a small image of MetalTyrannomon followed by a new set of beeps, and finally the screen then shut off.

I flashed a smile at Angemon, who simply grinned as he glided over to my side. We didn't have any time to talk about his new evolution, for Paul was still engaging Alex's digimon on the other side. We went over to his side only to find the battle was almost over.

IceLeomon had already hit MetalTyrannomon with his frozen attack, and the cyborg digimon's body was covered with scattered sections of ice. Because of this, his movements were slower than the one Angemon had fought and made dispatching him a simple task for the obviously experienced IceLeomon.

The white lion jumped up and let out a passionate growl as he drove the blade into his opponent's frozen body. The ice expanded, consuming the cyborg digimon until it burst. All that was left was a pile of broken ice. From this a blue ring formed and Paul apparently had the same idea as I did, for he too absorbed the data. I did notice that he didn't seem to have any problem with willing the digivice, and didn't even notice as the device showed him his capture.

All that were left now were the Shurimon who had been locked in combat with the Ninjamon. Alex was now visible in the distance, and lifted her digivice to face her lips. The Shurimon disengaged our forces and surrounded her, the teams was now in full retreat.

_When the followers of the Royal Knights were declared infidels by Alphamon, the Shinobi clans of the Eastern Mountains suffered a split between two major groups. The Ninjamon of the South pledged themselves solely to Yggdrasil's Knights, but the Northern Shurimon left to join Alphamon's "Holy Army". Ever since the two species are locked in eternal rivalry, but not hate. Their feelings can be best described as disappointment that the other group can not see what is considered to be 'the truth'._


	25. Chapter 25

_I think as of now we can expect a chapter either every day or every other day. Sorry for the wait! -Charlie2038_

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Five**

"Chase them down!", yelled the Ninjamon captain.

"Let them go, we must tend to the wounded", IceLeomon said from the back. All the lower Ninjamon stopped in their tracks and followed the Ultimate-level's suggestion and the captain grunted in annoyance.

Angemon had stepped over beside me, and I became fully aware of how tall he had become. I knew I was not very tall myself, but because of that I was more or less aware of how tall others usually were by comparison. Standing before me, Angemon could have easily been two meters tall, yet he had a very calming aura.

"How did you- I mean…you digivolved!", I said

"Yes, when I saw you in peril I was determined to save you, and in doing so I was granted the power to evolve to Angemon", he said in his sonorous voice.

"You seem so different though, I mean, before you were just little Patamon, and now…"

"Digimon that evolve always seem more mature, but I'm not sure why", Paul said as he approached us.

Angemon did not speak, but instead I saw the data stream envelop him once again, and I knew Patamon would appear from the shining orb. When he came forward he was sporting the wide smile I had grown accustomed to in the short time we had been together. He flew over and landed smoothly on my shoulder; all previous "mature" behavior disappeared.

Leomon had also shifted back into his old, warmer form, and was speaking to the Ninjamon off to the side. There were two wounded from the battle, but both stood as tall as they could when speaking to their lion commander. Paul soon walked in from behind Leomon and joined the discussion, while I conversed with Patamon.

"Digivolving feels funny", he started casually.

"Oh really? How _does_ it feel?

"Its like you are being squished and pulled around…like a pie!"

"You know what a pie is?"

"Yeah! I saw one back at the base…it smelled real nice"

"Maybe we can have one when we get back"

Deciding that they had taken too long in their conversation, I walked over with Patamon flying to my right. It seemed that as soon as I arrived the conversation was over and Paul was quickly motioning us back to the hideout's entrance. This time Paul had retrieved his digivice in anticipation, which made both Patamon and I laugh. "I think he really likes opening the doors", Patamon had whispered. Just before the dirt replaced itself on top of the stairs, I noticed the sun was setting. _Had we really been in Yggdrasil's lair for so long?_ Exhaustion began to set in as I realized it had at least been two days since I had last slept.

"You look tired", Paul said as we walked down.

"Yeah, we haven't had much rest since getting here"

"Well we got the perfect solution for that. A good meal and warm beds is what you need"

Paul dismissed the digimon, except for Leomon and Patamon, and walked with us to the living quarters. They were conveniently located near the mess hall, but even the smell of freshly 'loaded' food was not enough to keep us away from the warm beds we awaited in the living quarters.

"You guys go on to rest then, Leomon and I will definitely have something to chow first"

Once we got to the door, which was marked in the same language as the rest of the consoles, Paul and Leomon bid us goodnight and walked over to the mess hall.

"Aren't they tired?", Patamon asked

"I guess they slept last night buddy, but not us"

Weakly I pushed open the door to find a hallway packed with plain twin-sized beds on either side. Most of these were already occupied by sleeping digimon; signs of beds being the property of certain individuals had marked others. One of the beds had been marked with the Ninjamon's captain. The only reason I was able to tell is because he had included a drawing on his own sign. We found an empty bed near the end of the hallway and I dragged us to it as fast as I could.

Without bothering to remove the covers from their tucked position, I crashed down on the right side of the bed, leaving a space for Patamon, who gladly accepted it with what I thought was a purring noise.

"Goodnight Charlie", he said softly

"Goodnight, Patamon", I answered automatically.

With that we fell asleep and it only took minutes for us to completely doze off.

_Digimon that evolve gain access to previous born knowledge collected form their previous existence. While usually they do not directly have access to their past memories, the knowledge is normally passed in the form of instinct. Some believe that reborn Royal Knights, Demon Lords, Olympus XII, and other major digimon are exceptions to the rule; these scholars think that they regain all memories once they regain the Mega level._


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter Twenty-six**

I had to keep moving. The sound of howling wolves was a constant reminder of my predicament. Faster; I had to run faster. My heart was pounding and with every step that I took and I wondered if only listening for it was enough for them to track me. It did not matter; I still had a mission to complete.

The woods began clearing as I got near the log cabin. It was definitely good to see a familiar sight through all the recent chaos. No one ever knew who built it or when it was made; it was just always there. Conveniently it was relatively close to my house. Tonight, this would be sanctuary…I'd be away from _them_. The howling had resumed and felt as if they were right at my heels. In the dim moonlight it'd be impossible to see, I could only hope I was fast enough.

I soon reached the cabin, but as I stretched out my hand a much larger one grasped it. Its metal fingers wrapped around my wrist and stopped me dead in my tracks. I was able to turn around and saw a large armored creature above me, with one hand on my arm and the other clutching a large sword. The figure swung it down towards me, but before it crashed, I awoke.

I sat up in my bed and gasped for air. The room was completely dark save for a few night lamps that lined the hall. Looking over to my side, I saw Patamon still deep in his slumber. Quietly, I snuck out of the bed and left the hall. On the way out I saw Paul and Leomon sleeping, but both had separate beds. _Was I was really expecting both of them to be sleeping together in one bed? That'd be strange. _

Once I was out of the sleeping area it was clear that even though the main leaders had retired for the night, the rest of the base had not. The halls had been dimmed and there were less digimon strolling around the area, but you could still hear the sounds of the command center and mess hall from where I was standing.

Deciding that I was probably not going to go back to sleep anytime soon, I walked over to the command center to find about half the usual staff still working as diligently as ever. As I walked over to the central platform I was greeted by some of the digimon with salutes or other acknowledging remarks. Reaching the circular area, I looked over the display screens, trying to understand how this system worked. For me, the hardest part was trying to read the strange language everything was written in. Thankfully, most of the displays also contained pictures and many seemed to be of a chrome-colored city.

"That's Volt", a voice said from behind. I spun around to see Leomon with his arms crossed.

"You are up early", he said.

"I couldn't sleep"

"Battles tend to do that…well, now that you are here, is there anything you need? One does not simply wander into the command center for no reason"

Yet that was precisely what I had done. It was, after all, the only area besides the mess hall and sleeping quarters that I was familiar with, but there was _something_ I was curious about.

"What is this language I see on the screen? You all speak English, but your writing is strange to me"

Leomon's hand grasped his chin as he mused over the question.

"English is not the only language for us in the digital world, but it is the one we all speak. As for our writing, it is called Digi-code and it is a mere set of replacement letters for English. You see this letter?", he said while pointing to something on the command console, "That is a Z, but in Digi-code"

Looking over to the rest of the words, I did notice that most of it seemed to be spaced similarly to English. I thanked Leomon for the information, and realized something. Leomon was the perfect partner for Paul. They both seemed to display an aura of warmth and sincerity, although he often tried to be mysterious.

In many ways Paul was like the brother I never had, and standing with Leomon seemed to make all those memories rush in.

"Did Paul ever tell you how we met?", I asked Leomon

"Paul has mentioned you more than once, but never shared that particular story."

"It all started when I was about nine or ten, and I had just moved into a new neighborhood. There was this one kid; he was glued to his window as the movers helped us unload the truck, but I didn't spend much time outside of the house for the first few days.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the best and worst day of my life occurred.

_The exact number of digimon that are active members of the Restoration Army is hard to calculate. New recruits are often added through word of mouth, but many quit early under the pressure of a growing rebellion. Most in the higher ranks of the RA would say the number is in the thousands. _


End file.
